The troubled Melbourne office of Publicis Mojo has made a number of redundancies that sees staff numbers dwindle to eight – down from more than 80 five years ago at the once-great Australian creative brand.

A restructure instigated by Joe Pollard, the ex-NineMSN boss who joined the company four months ago, will see Mojo Melbourne’s digital capability run out of Sydney and Brisbane.

In a statement, Mojo boss Joe Pollard told Mumbrella: “Publicis Mojo is committed to having a strong and vibrant agency in Melbourne. We are committed to the market and to our clients. To better meet clients needs and marketplace changes, we have undertaken a restructure of the Melbourne business.

ADVERTISEMENT

“New digital capability in strategy and creative will be hired and production will be centralised out of Sydney and Brisbane. This re-organisation has led to some redundancies in the business.”

In a related move, the role of Publicis Mojo Melbourne’s managing partner Kellie Lennon has been changed to general manager.

The agency has been hit by a string of client departures in recent times. Brands including Trading Post, Just Jeans, HP, Nike, Travel Spirit, Cadbury and Tourism Victoria – arguably the most prestigious account in Melbourne – have left in recent years.

Staff numbers have fallen from 81 – 87 including freelancers – in 2007 to just eight currently, though these numbers were unconfirmed by the agency.

DD, originally from Adelaide and now living in Melbourne, I can assure that Melbourne is not the new Adelaide. Adelaide’s downturn was primarily due to many nationally based companies moving HQ to the Eastern seaboard and their advertising went with it. This simply isn’t the case for Melbourne. The key reason for FCB, TCP and now Mojo’s demise is that they haven’t moved with times. Having one or two key clients and producing 30 second television commercials is a receipe for disaster…as is having production capability located interstate.

Joe has nailed it 100%. Sue Perry was amazing to work with & the work we produced was pretty damned awesome. I am proud to have been a part of that.
I can’t tell you how it saddens me to see one of the great innovators reduced to a branch office.

It’s pretty much undisputed that nobody much is going to miss the old guard who have left or are about to be elbowed out, with the exception of a few people who had carved out strong political podiums in the disfunctional family.

not saying it won’t happen…and there aren’t many good people in there anyway…but for now, the new CEO is at least promising something better….as opposed to the old ‘spirit of Mojo’ nonsense that nobody except the old stagers cared about or understood anyway